MARIETTE IN ECSTASY

Though this novel may tell you more about life in a priory than you really want to know, the plot finally picks up to center on Mariette, a seemingly gifted 17-year-old postulant. All goes well until Mariette begins to be, not only for Christ, but of Christ, falling into moments of trance-like ecstasy, displaying unexplained and unexplainable stigmata, incurring the judgment of colleagues and villagers as either saint or fraud. Barbara Caruso's narration matches the novel: competently matter of fact, relatively undramatic, particularly adroit with the frequent French and Latin lines. At bottom, however, it must be said that, good reader though she is, Caruso doesn't have a lot to work with here. T.H. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 98]